Smallville Season 11: Continuity #1 (2015)
by Bryan Q. Miller & Ig Guara
cover by Cat Staggs
The last piece of Smallville media to involve the Legion is the “Continuity” miniseries, which is one of the several minis published after the conclusion of the main “Season 11” series.
In fact we begin in the 31st century, with some Dominators praying in front of the Source Wall.
I remind you that Smallville, which barely had any budget to speak of, managed to (badly) adapt Darkseid and elements of the Fourth World.
As far as I know they didn’t actually have the Source Wall… given the Smallville budget, especially in the late seasons, it would literally have been just a wall in a sound stage.
The Dominator ship is saved by the Legion of Super-Heroes. Represented in this case by Lightning Lad, Chameleon Boy and Pink Brainiac 5.
I’ve said it before, but it’s a pity that these comic adaptations stick to having Brainiac 5 with pink skin because Smallville had no budget for body paint… he FEELS like Brainiac 5, but with that look it’s jarring.
Even after saving the Dominators, something is wrong with the Source Wall: there’s nothing on the other side.
What exactly is SUPPOSED to be on the other side of the Source Wall has never been entirely clear, but there’s supposed to be SOMETHING.
The “nothingness” has now passed through the Source Wall, and the Legion barely escapes.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Smallville is pulling a Crisis.
I should point out that this is the FIRST scene in the FIRST issue! Imagine being the fan of (essentially) a teen drama that occasionally has superpowers, and then picking up THIS series.
I’m telling you, Smallville as a franchise is just nuts.
Of course the Crisis is headed for the 21st century. It’s always that or the 20th century.
This prompts Brainiac 5 to enact a Legion protocol that he just made up.
How does he expect anyone to follow it!?
And I hope that was Legion enough for you, because we won’t see the Legionnaires for a while.
We then move to the 21st century, where Washington DC is threatened by another bubble of nothingness… I think? It’s not shown and nobody describes it.
We learn this through the people working for the D.E.O. (Department of Extranormal Operations)… who are Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman and Zatanna.
Told you Smallville is nuts.
Meanwhile, series regular Chloe has married Green Arrow and is heavily pregnant.
This has no impact on the Legion part of the story but it allows me to show this wonderful quote.
Also, uhm, I’m not gonna lie… I’m not following much of this. Superman is shown to be injured by… something? And I think cities like Washington are being abducted by aliens?
Okay I think there are alien ships that are moving cities to another dimension, but to the rest of the world it looks like they’re been destroyed?
Well everything makes sense to Lex Luthor, so it’s probably fine.
Oh, Clark, you sweet summer child. You have no idea of just how many times you’ve been rebooted, haven’t you?
As if things weren’t complicated enough already, we have the Manhunters to worry about now.
Can’t wait to find out what a mess the Smallville version of the Manhunters is.
After recovering a piece of Manhunter technology, Superman assembles “The Team”.
Which is basically the Smallville version of the Teen Titans and which currently includes the Gay Garrick Flash, the clone Superboy, Blue Beetle, the Wonder Twins, Speedy, Raven and Miss Martian. Out of ALL OF THESE, the only ones that were not introduced in the TV show are only Raven and Miss Martian!!!
The same scene also has the Watchtower Network, the Smallville version of the JLA.
Which currently includes Green Arrow, Supergirl, Batman, Nightwing (Barbara Gordon), Martian Manhunter and Booster Gold. Out of these, only Batman and Nightwing never appeared up in the TV show.
Which means that the Smallville TV show adapted THE WONDER TWINS BEFORE BATMAN.
I keep telling you, Smallville is nuts!!!
To be fair, the comic is fully aware of just how ridiculous the source material was.
There’s not even a footnote here, but I can absolutely believe that’s a Smallville scene.
Clark and Bruce Wayne are speaking metaphorically here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual Devil showed up in Smallville.
Okay, if I understand this correctly: the Monitors are transforming matter into pure data, which they then “reboot” by altering the recreation once the data is turned back into matter.
Smallville Season 11: Continuity #2 (2015)
by Bryan Q. Miller & Ig Guara
cover by Cat Staggs
This cover doesn’t look like it belongs to the same series.
The big plan is to have all the heroes to create a distraction, so that Lois Lane can sneak into an enemy ship and transmit a code that will restore the cities to their original form.
No disrespect to Lois Lane but YOU HAVE BATMAN, isn’t this EXACTLY what he typically does in big plans like this???
To be fair, there is an explanation for this. A stupid one, but there is.
It’s because she doesn’t have powers, so the Manhunters won’t register has a threat.
Not a bad idea. Until you remember BATMAN also doesn’t have powers!!!
Guys, I perfectly understand wanting Lois to play an important role in a Superman story, but at least try coming up with a believable reason!
The constant talk about fighting against rebooting this continuity is getting a bit on the nose.
This results into, of course, a Big Dumb Fight.
The Green Lanterns get involved, because why not at this point.
They already showed up in the “Smallville: Lantern” miniseries; Jon Stewart’s look appears to be straight out of the Justice League animated series, but the most baffling cameo is by Aya… she originated in the 2011 Green Lantern cartoon (before being introduced in proper continuity).
Also a Blue Lantern, because why not throw anyone in at this point.
Lois Lane does get into the alien ship, with Lex Luthor instantly becoming the best part of the scene even when he has a small role.
Hey, just like in the TV show!
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Lex Luthor is into this for himself.
This is when the Legion finally shows up to help!
Not that it was particularly necessary, because the good guys still upload the virus to the alien ship… thanks to Lex’s suit, which had been infected by one of Superman’s main allies.
Who just happens to be Lex Luthor’s half-sister transformed into an AI.
Have I mentioned that Smallville is nuts?
Oh no, not Blue Lantern! He’s been part of this story since… checking my notes… 27 pages!
Where he did… checking again… absolutely nothing.
Smallville Season 11: Continuity #3 (2015)
written by Bryan Q. Miller
pencils by Ig Guara & Marcelo Di Chiara
cover by Cat Staggs
The Legion doesn’t even show up in the whole issue. What was even the point of making them travel back to the 21st century???
A considerable amount of the issue is dedicated to an attack to the Watchtower, so Tess has to upload her artificial intelligence into a Red Tornado body.
Yep.
To recap: we have the half-sister of Lex Luthor transformed into an AI and then uploaded into a female Red Tornado.
What even is this series!?!?!?
Another chunk is dedicated to fighting this big monster.
This is the only universe where not only Barbara Gordon never gets the chance to become Batgirl… she’s also first Nightwing and then Blue Lantern.
I swear Smallville feels like it’s picking new identities out of a hat.
Superman gets hit by one of these rebooting rays, in a honestly very cinematic scene…
…and he defeats the aliens by REFUSING TO BE REBOOTED.
That is probably the most Superman thing I’ve seen him do the whole time.
The dude just REFUSED THE PREMISE OF THE STORY TO WORK ON HIM.
Smallville Season 11: Continuity #4 (2015)
written by Bryan Q. Miller
pencils by Ig Guara & Marcelo Di Chiara
cover by Cat Staggs
Where do you even go from there? Well, we opened the miniseries with a crisis at opposite sides of time, so there’s still work to do.
Or not. THE CRISIS IS ALREADY OVER.
So all that’s left are goodbyes. Which I’ve come to realize account for like 30% of Smallville.
“Nightwing” leaves for space (!!!), but not before leaving behind a new sidekick.
Superman then gives a speech about freedom and stuff, which is good enough for a Legion cameo.
All to present one of the ugliest Justice League statues I’ve ever seen.
There’s some more goodbyes, but I’d have to understand Smallville to follow them all.
With Superman refusing to reboot this universe, it got me thinking: how long did the Smallville comic continuity last after this?
It didn’t. As far as I can tell, “Continuity” is the last miniseries set in this universe.
Appropriately enough for a series that couldn’t call him Superman for 10 years, this is the last panel.
Does any of this show up in any regular continuity?
The aliens are the Smallville version of the Monitors, but I’m not opening THAT can of worms.
But the Earth-2 Lois Lane was resurrected into the body of a female Red Tornado at some point.
If I had a nickel every time a female member of the Superman supporting cast is resurrected into Red Tornado… I’d have two nickels, but it’s weird it happened twice.
SHOULD any of this have happened in regular continuity?
From what little I’ve seen him here, I like Smallville Batman. It especially makes sense that he’s covering his ENTIRE face, instead of leaving the jaw exposed… but hilariously, it looks like it’s not a mask: he just splats facepaint over himself.
So he’s basically going into battle doing batface.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
I can absolutely believe Silver Age Superman could just refuse to obey the plot.
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
I’ve skipped way too much to give this a reasonable score. The previous arc I reviewed did a pretty good job at giving you the information needed even if you weren’t a Smallville superfan, whereas I was consistently lost on this one.
It’s also a bad use of the Legion: they get the opening scene, disappear for a long time, show up to help in the big battle… where we never see them, and they completely vanish.
If the miniseries was intended as one last Smallville adventure I understand the will to include the Legion in SOME capacity, but this was a lost opportunity.
Unlike the previous storyline, I can’t recommend this one to Legion superfans.
But if you’re a fan of Smallville or of being dropped blindfolded into the jungle and needing to find your way home without any clues… preferably both… you might enjoy this one.
We are Legion
21 active members
Assuming they are the same of the previous saga. Supergirl has left the team at some point (she made other appearances prior to this).
2 reserve members
-Superman
-Supergirl
And that’s it for the Smallville part of the retrospective.
Next will be the biggest part of the Legion media: the 2003 cartoon, along with its comic book spin-off. Considering that other media takes me significantly longer to review than comics, it will be a while before I tackle the cartoon… probably after I’ve finished the 5YL Legion.